Or you can buy a larger disk and just live with a big chunk being wasted. If that isn't good enough you have to reinstall Windows. Once this happens you can buy some time perhaps with the system cleanup, system files option. I agree trying to take a scalpel to this mess yourself is not possible or advisable. If somebody knows a way to get the thumbnails larger in file explorer, please post it. Extra large is still too small to view pictures without opening them. Please give us the slider back from Windows 7. Although in my experience the amount it returns is very small and it often results in a insanely long reboot afterwards as Windows rebuilds SXS mess. I’m using Windows 10, tried the registry trick and from Kris, Control + Scroll, neither worked. Windows 10 has done nothing to fix this, save that the feature updates basically do a reinstall and upgrade which resets the timer and somewhat papers over the problem.Īnyway, sometimes the system cleanup utility can get some space back from this. Worse, as updates are installed and software is added and removed this pile of hardlinks grows like cancer.

Its only advantage is it probably reduces writes to a SSD. You can't use that space for files and neither can Windows or its processes. This means that while the lost space isn't technically used it effectively is. Unfortunately, its also irrelevant for anyone not running a virtual machine because windows itself cannot correctly determine hardlinks aren't actually using the extra space. I know because if I install windows in a virtual machine on a qcow2 disk the virtual disk file is much smaller than the used space in Windows itself.

Windows folder too big windows 10